Shifting Determination
by LlamaHug
Summary: This is based on the StoryShift AU. Chara is very confused on how this machine in her office works. She doesn't remember building it! She spends time trying to figure out what it does nearly every night. Until one day a human soul comes to the underground for the first time in years...
1. Chapter 1: A Normal Day

**Before this begins, here's a quick authors note**

 **Hi! This is my first fan fiction ever so I'm wide open for criticism! I still have a lot to learn... just don't flat out insult me, that's just mean :/. I'm really excited to write this story but I can't promise that I'll always be able to write chapters. Why? School. -_- but I will try my best to get one out every week. Emphasis on try. Anyway, i hope you will enjoy!**

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Chara was leaning against a tree, her eyes were closed, focusing on the snowflakes as they fall down on her. She chuckled to herself a bit. "This snow still doesn't make any sense…" she told herself. Chara stayed quiet for a moment. Then, with her eyes still shut, with a simple flick of her hand, a knife formed right in front of her. She instantly took the knife and started to twirl it around her fingers. It moved smoothly through her hand, and it looked very natural to her. Up, down, left, right, index, pinkie, thumb. This little game was a habit she had ever since she first held a knife. The point of it was to see how long she could twirl the knife before her hand gets cut. Her record was half an hour. "Wow… it feels like just yesterday I entered the underground… how long has it been, 5 years? 10 years? 20?! Nah definitely not twenty… ten sound more accurate, and when I fell here I was ten years old… wow." she said "I'm so old! Haha!" "UM, HUMAN? ARE YOU TALKING TO YOURSELF AGAIN?" Chara flinched and dropped the knife, cutting her hand in the process.

 **-0.3**

"Ah! Come on!" Chara screamed. She turned to where the voice was coming from, and she found herself facing a big, purple door. "HUMAN! ARE YOU HURT?!" Chara sighed in relief "Yeah, I'm fine, just gimme a minute" Chara knelt down and grabbed the knife. She proceeded to throw it into the air and watch it disappear into thin air. She then leaned into the door and slid down until she was sitting on the snow. "Hello mister. I'm glad to see you're here early" Chara said with a smile despite the man not being able to see it through the door.

"SAME GOES TO YOU! USUALLY YOU'RE 15 MINUTES LATE! DID SOMETHING HAPPEN?!"

"Not really…"

"YOU'RE A TERRIBLE LIAR!"

"Am not!"

"SERIOUSLY, WHAT HAPPENED?"

"sigh, I woke up with this terrible headache, I have no idea why!"

"DID YOU CHECK YOUR HP?"

"Yeah, 1 outta 1 as always, well, 0.7 outta 1, I accidentally cut myself when you startled me earlier"

"OH! MY APOLOGIES HUMAN, I DIDN'T MEAN TO SCARE YOU!"

"Hey, no worries mister! My bro will heal it up for me"

"GOOD! SO, ARE YOU STILL SLACKING AT WORK?"

"Yup! What can I say? It's hard to take care of 3 sentry stations and one hot dog stand! But hey, more jobs, more breaks! Am I right?!"

"…. UGH! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TELEPORTATION MAGIC?"

"Of course, mister! But I'm a human, all the magic I have is solely because I've been eating monster food for so long! It's not nearly enough for teleportation magic! Yeah, I can summon knifes to be as big or as many of them as I want, but that's it. Unlike Asriel, who is trying different types of magic nearly every day, I have to focus only one, but it's better than nothing. I admit, sometimes I get a little jealous of Azzy, but I'm thankful for the magic I do have."

"SPEAKING OF HIM, HOW IS YOUR BROTHER?"

"Azzy's doing just fine! Regularly practicing magic with mom, picking me up from Grillby's if I have too much mayonnaise, and screaming at me to pick up my dang yellow shirt I never use! Also his butterscotch pie is getting a lot better, too bad it's not edible yet"

"ONE DAY MAYBE I CAN TEACH HIM HOW TO MAKE MY SPAGHETTI!"

"Well I'm sure that be great- Sniff sniff" Chara took one hand out of her pocket to cover up her

nose

"Is something burning over there?"

"OH NO… MY SPAGHETTI!"

And with that, Chara heard quick footsteps as the 'mister' got up and started to run

"So we meet again tomorrow morning right?!" Chara screamed after him

"YES, BYE HUMAN!"

And that was that. Chara sat there for a bit wondering what to do next. "…Welp! I've been hard at work; I say it's time for a break." And so, she got up and proceeded to abandon her station. After a crap-ton of walking, she reached the entrance of Grillby's. Chara threw the door wide open to hear several companions cheer at her arrival. She smiled back at them "Hey Everyone! Nice to see y'all too!" Chara walked over to the bar and took a seat

 **PPLLLLLLLLLLLLRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRBT!**

". . . . ."

Chara jumped down and dug under the cushion she was sitting in, and out she pulled out a whoopee cushion "Alright, which one of you rascals decided to get revenge on me?!" She said with a smirk. As everyone roared with laughter, she noticed Lesser Dog trying his best to keep from giggling. "Oi! Lesser Dog!" She screamed on top of her lungs. Lesser Dog quickly shifted his head toward Chara. "Here!" She tossed him the whoopee cushion, he stretched his neck and caught it with his mouth. "That was a good one! I'll have to try my best to top it!" Lesser dog gave Chara a worried smile. Chara sat down on her seat and took a big chug of mayonnaise. "Hey Chara" said a fellow monster "don't you get drunk from that stuff?" Chara put down the mayo and replied "Only if I really try. One or two cups a day doesn't do anything!"

And so Chara sat there, ate food, and shared stories with the others, until…

 **SLAM!**

The door to Grillby's nearly flew out of its place as it violently opened. Surprisingly, the culprit is a little white goat, with a small bandanna around his neck. He let out blood curdling scream "CHARAAAA! **"**

Chara turned around to see the little goat "Yes Azzy?" she nonchalantly replied

"You are supposed to be at your station! And stop calling me that!"

"Asriel, c'mon I'm on break, just chill will ya?"

"Absolutely not! It's bed time! I came here to pick you up!"

Asriel walked over Chara as he said this. He grabbed her and put her over his shoulder, all that training must be really paying off. "Welp. Any last words Grillby?" Chara asked as her brother carried her toward the door

". . . . pay your f***ing tab." He said in the most monotone voice imaginable

"NEVEEEEEEEEEEER!" Chara screamed and his brother reached the snowy streets and ran towards their house

Despite being mad, Asriel carefully put Chara down on the sofa and started going upstairs "Chara, you need to stop slacking off! Seriously! Sigh… I'm going upstairs to take a shower and put on my pajamas, I expect a bedtime story in twenty minutes! Please don't be late!" Chara laid on the couch and faced the ceiling "Me?! Miss your bedtime story?! Pfff! Please!" She gave Asriel a wink

"Alright! I love you, sister!" He said as he shut the door to his room

"… I love you to Azzy" Chara said, mostly to herself.

When she was sure Asriel was out of sight, Chara got up and headed for the door. She walked out in the freezing cold, the wind blew her hoodie off her head, revealing a very neat, and somewhat sparkly set of hair. "Sheesh! How long was I at Grillby's for the weather to get this bad?" she complained. She walked to the back of their house and went face to face with a brown door. Chara dug her hand in her pocket and pulled out a green key, she used it on the door and with a simple click, it flung open.

When Chara entered the room, she had the most serious face she had all day. She opened a drawer and took a bunch of blueprints. She sat down and studied them for a while. Not long after staring at them, Chara summoned a knife and started twirling it in her fingers again. She was in no danger of getting harmed, because she had no intent of killing herself or anyone else to damage by knife would be less than one. And she healed back to her full one HP when she ate at Grillby's just in case.

"So according to this the machine needs extreme amounts DT, or DeTermination, my soul is close to that amount but not quite. If I do somehow activate the machine…. I have no clue what's gonna happen!" She slammed her head into the table. "Ugh! This doesn't make any sense! What the world is this supposed to do?!" She told herself in frustration. She looked over at a big figure covered by a blanket. She got up and tore the blanket of revealing some sort of machinery.

It was rectangular, it had a small heart-shaped slot, some buttons underneath next to that, there was an opening, big enough to fit one or two people. If looked from far away, you could easily confuse it with a photo booth. Chara stopped twirling the knife in her hand. She made it disappear, grabbed a wrench, and started fiddling with it. She is always taking it apart and putting it back together over and over, to see if she gets any clues to what it might be. After a while of this Chara figured it was best to start heading back inside. She pulled her hoodie over her head, went outside, locked the door, and went back to her own home. She then laid down on the couch in the exact same position as before. It was like she never moved. "Chara! I'm in my room! It's time for our story!"

"Heh, Azzy you're so adorable" Chara told him as she entered the room. "I'm not cute!" Asriel said as his ears turned slightly red. "Sure you're not, now which book do you want? Traps and Schemes or Peek a Boo with Fluffy Fox?" Chara responded

"Fluffy Fox please!" "Heh heh, alright then, once upon a time…" and so Chara read the entire book to Asriel, once she finished and looked up at him, he was already asleep. She told him goodnight and left the room. Usually, Chara would go back to the workshop and continue messing with the machine, but the headache from earlier really got to her. So she decided to hit the hay early. She walked into the literal hurricane of mess she called her room. Chara took of her hoodie and threw on the ground, for pajamas, she changed her white t-shirt to a blue one, her pants to basketball shorts and called it a day. She laid down on her 'bed' (it was just a mattress on the floor, she too lazy to put up a bed frame) "… sigh welp, let's see what tomorrow brings us, good night Asriel, mom, dad." And so she drifted to sleep. Little did she know, the next day

Everything is going to change

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 **Scrapped ideas:**

 **Papyrus spaghetti still tastes horrible**

 **Chara has a justice soul instead of determination**

 **Asriel is still wimpy**

 **Asriel and Toriel burn down the house trying to make pie... actually I'll put this one in the "maybe" pile**


	2. Chapter 2: A Nightmare

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yay my second chapter! And on time! :3**

 **If you have any thoughts that you'd like to share with me please comments, because I have only recently started writing I'm in desperate need of criticism T-T**

 **Also I have the cover image for the story done! I just have to find out how to put it here...**

 **I hope you enjoy this little project :)**

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Chara woke up with a huge gasp. Her heart was nearly beating out of her chest, her forehead was sweaty, she was taking heavy breaths and she was clutching to the middle of her shirt even though there is nothing there. "Huff ... puff… I ... I am not dead …" Then her expression changed from scared and tired to a sudden realization **"Asriel!"**

She leaped for the door and ran toward her door. She slammed it open and nearly tripped over own feet while doing so. She kept running down the hall until she reached her brothers room. She summoned a knife and kept a tight grip on it.

Chara opened the door "Broth-" she covered her mouth with her free hand. There he was, Asriel was peacefully sleeping in his star-themed bed. Actually, peacefully wouldn't be the right word. He snores. **A LOT.** Chara was overflown by relief, she nearly fell over.

She made the knife disappear, shut the door to Asriel's room and sat down on the floor in the middle of the hallway. "huff… we're not dead, no… no one died yet..." Chara was still calming down from the shock.

 _What happened? Was that a nightmare? Yes, definitely a nightmare. But it felt so real… Why do I have this déjà vu kind of feeling? Have I done this before? I don't think so… WHAT IS GOING ON?!_

"Chara?" Chara flinched at the sudden voice interrupting her train of thought, she looked back and saw that Asriel had woken up, he looked concerned to say the least.

"Um, Chara are you ok? You never wake this early…" Chara sighed "I'm … I'm fine Azzy, I just had a really bad nightmare" She responded. Asriel still looked worried though "Do you want to talk about it?"

Chara stayed quiet for a moment. "… No. Besides, even if I did want to talk about it, I'm starting to forget the details, it's all kind of fuzzy right now" This was true, the people and the events in the dream were hard to figure out, but it's clear what Chara was thinking and feeling at that time. It was mostly betrayal and fear

"Oh Ok… well it's still nighttime so I'm going back to sleep, see you in the morning sis!" Asriel headed for his door but then Chara grabbed his sleeve making him stop "Wait, Asriel… Can I … Can I sleep with you tonight? Please?" Asriel gave her a surprised look, but it quickly turned into a comforting smile "Of course Chara! I'd be happy to!"

Chara and Asriel had both gotten their sleeping bags from the basement, Asriel could sleep in his bed but he wanted to take this opportunity to use them for the first time. They laid down on the floor and morphed into... the caterpillar brothers!

But then realization hit

"… s***, we forgot to turn off the lights"

One crappy night later, Ariel woke up first (to no one's surprise). He got up and started getting ready for the day. Chara got up 1 or 2 hours later, and she walked into her room, and turned on the lights, now it's easy to see the entire room. It was filled to the brim with golden flowers, they were all around her bed and her one cabinet. She also had a mini fridge, it was the only thing in the room that the flowers haven't touched. There was also a watering can on top of her cabinet.

Chara opened the mini fridge and looked at the crap-ton of mayonnaise inside. Chara used to drink only chocolate sauce and eat chocolate bars, but after a while, both Toriel and Asriel hid all the chocolate to avoid any more sugar rushes and/or cavities. Now chocolate is only allowed on special occasions. And cookies. The rest of the family loves chocolate chip cookies as well, so they decided this would be the only exception. Chara took a bottle of mayo and put it on top of the cabinet, she changed her basketball shorts to sweatpants and grabbed her flower-covered hoodie. They must have accumulated around it overnight. Still, Chara changed to her white shirt and put the hoodie over it. She pulled the hood over her head to complete her everyday look. She grabbed the bottle mayo and headed out "AZZY! I'm going to my Snowdin station! I'll grab breakfast during my break!" Chara didn't wait for an answer. She walked right past her station and to the purple door. She sat down and leaned on it as usual, waiting for "mister" to arrive. When he did, Chara drank her mayo as they shared stories and laughed, but Chara noticed that mister sounded… worried.

"Mister? Is something wrong?"

"… OH! N-NO IM FINE…"

"You're a terrible liar!"

Chara winked as she said this even though he can't see her through the door

"HA HA…. HUMAN?"

"Yes?"

"WOULD YOU PROMISE ME SOMETHING?"

"Oh, of course! What is it?"

"IF… IF ANOTHER HUMAN WALKS THROUGH THIS DOOR, COULD YOU MAKE SURE THEY STAY SAFE? I-I MEAN, I'M NOT SAYING THAT THEY CAN'T DEFEND THEMSELVES! IT'S JUST ... I WANT TO MAKE SURE THEY'RE OK. COULD YOU DO THAT FOR ME?"

Chara froze for a second. _A human?! But it's been years since I've seen one! Well apart from myself of course. I wonder..._

"I promise."

Chara had nothing against protecting humans. Her entire family wanted to support humans so she would gladly do the same.

"THANK YOU! I FEEL A LOT BETTER NOW! NYEHEHE!"

"heh…"

They went on and talked about nothing in particular, but there was thought in the back of Chara's head. _Is there a human in the ruins?_

Chara walked back to her station with an empty bottle of mayonnaise. Mister sounded a lot happier after that promise, but why now? Why her?! "UGH! I'm waaaaaaaay too tired to think of this right now" Chara didn't exactly get a good night's sleep. The sleeping bags weren't enough to keep her comfortable from the cold, hard floor. Needless to say, she had a restless night and a little nap would really help. But before she did that, Chara took out her journal from under her sentry station. She wrote down everything she found suspicious or confusing to see if by putting it on paper would help make sense of it.

 **ENTRY NUMBER 158**

 **Mister made me promise not to harm any humans that come through that door. I had no intentions on harming others of my kind, seeing how my family deeply cares for them. But it was a peculiar thing to ask. Especially since the last time I've seen another human was over 4 years ago. If there is a human at the ruins they will probably leave soon since no other human stayed there for long. I mostly use this notebook to make sense of 'the machine' or to register humans. Well, if you call drawing them and describing their soul type registering, then yes. Anyway, I'm gonna nap. Probably shouldn't have written that down. Whatever.**

Chara carefully put her journal back under her station and threw the empty bottle into the trash can near it. She then crossed her arms, laid her head on them, and listened to the dead quiet forest as she drifted to sleep. A half an hour later, the silence was broken by the creaking sound of a door opening.

Chara woke up almost instantly and looked at the hall-like forest entrance to find the back of a small human child in a striped shirt.

Chara smirked as she had the chance to introduce herself to human for the first time in years. She ran through the forest and quickly climbed a tree by the right side. By her efficiency, you can safely assume that she has been preparing herself for this moment a while now. When she looked down, her smile slowly faded

 _Is… is that dust on their shirt? And why do they have a knife?! I-I mean, it looks very dull, and I can tell the blade is plastic. Maybe It's just a toy? And the dust can just be dust! Not specifically monster dust. Yeah! That's it._

Chara watched the human casually walk by the tree she was in. Chara's green hoodie served as camouflage with the rest of the leaves so she remained unnoticed. "Welp." She said as she started to stand on the branch she was hanging onto. "Time to break the hell outta that branch!" Chara jumped off and watched he feet perfectly split a conveniently placed branch (on the ground) in half and the crack noise echoed through the forest. As soon her feet reached the ground, Chara ran back into the forest so when the human turned around they could only see a split twig in the middle of the snow

After catching her breath, Chara waited for the human to continue walking. When they did, Chara positioned herself to show her shadow behind them for a split second before they could fully turn around and see her.

 _Here comes the best part!_

The human stopped by the "gate" Asriel built. Chara creepily walked closed to them, mayonnaise packets in hand. Then she said:

 **HUMAN–**

Before she could say anything else, the human turned around and nearly slapped the mayonnaise packets out of Chara's hands while trying to shake it. Chara watched as the mayo splattered all over both of their hands. "Heh, whoever wasted those packets were missing out!" She said, but then, she turned to face the human, and nearly froze. The human had dust all over their shirt and knife, their eyes were cold and dull, but the noticeable thing, they were twitching their head left and right. Chara took several steps back. There was no doubt left in Chara's mind. This THING isn't human. What unsettled Chara the most, is that even though this was the first human in years, they seem VERY familiar, but definitely not in a good way. Chara took a deep breath and put her hands in her pockets. "Heya 'bud', you're lookin' ruff, might I ask why?" No response. Just staring. "Alright then… so you are a human right? Me too! My bro is on their way here though, and they want to capture humans, I'm an exception of course, for a few good reasons" No. Response. "Uh heh, we uh, better hide you" Chara pushed the Human to the lamp and got them into position. Asriel then came in. "Aha! I have finally captured you 'human'" Usually, Chara would just play along and then reveal the human, but she just wants to get Asriel's puzzles done as soon as possible, so she can get her bro away from this dangerous human"

"Hey bro, how about we save the roleplay for later? Look what I found!" Chara grabbed the human's arm and revealed them"

"OMG! Chara I need to go set up the puzzles! Prepare to be captured human!" and so Asriel ran off in speeds unknown to man.

Chara let go of the human's arm and started to walk away. Right before she left the human sight, she stopped. Without turning around, she said "You know, my bro hasn't seen a human in a very long while. So..." When she turned her head, a shadow from bother hair and hoodie blocked her eyes creating a threatening look.

 **"IT'D BE NICE IF YOU KEPT ACTING LIKE ONE"**

And without another word, she walked away.

Chara was sure of one thing.

Something wasn't right.

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 **Scrapped Ideas:**

 **Chara could have a toy buzzer instead of a whoopee cushion... wait UF already used that (ended up on having mayo packets obviously :p)**

 **Make the entire Chara and Asriel cut scene even though this isn't a pacifist timeline (too much work, too little time T-T)**

 **Chara sneaks a bottle of chocolate sauce to work, hmmm... -puts in maybe pile-**

 **Asriel has school to go to school!... NAH**


End file.
